I can’t even remember how I first heard Iron Maiden — it just seems like they were always around when I was in high school. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was definitely my favorite album by them, and “Can I Play With Madness” was my favorite song. I had Iron Maiden T-shirts and posters on my wall. I remember we had a vinyl copy of Live After Death, and I thought the version of “The Number of the Beast” on that album was just killer.
I never saw Iron Maiden live, but I played the heck out of Seventh Son and also Somewhere in Time, which ended up being my favorite Iron Maiden album. I know a lot of people were like, “Oh, that’s the Iron Maiden synth album,” but to me, it’s just their best work.
Like The Who did just 15 years prior, Iron Maiden took the opportunity to demonstrate to those of us who had not seen the band play live, how much more massive than their already massive albums they really are, with their 1985 concert album, ‘Live After Death’.
While The Who pushed their relatively tame rock songs—“Substitute,” “Shakin’ All Over,” and “My Generation”—into molten metal territory with their live set from Leeds, Maiden completely transformed the boogie-driven “Running Free” into a frenzy of screaming guitar metal. Other songs that once seemed untouchable, like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Run to the Hills,” are somehow jolted into an even higher stratosphere. And their live rendition of “Flight of Icarus” proves that a single Bruce Dickinson can pummel us harder than the three (or more) Bruces on the multi-tracked studio version.
I can’t even remember how I first heard Iron Maiden — it just seems like they were always around when I was in high school. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was definitely my favorite album by them, and “Can I Play With Madness” was my favorite song. I had Iron Maiden T-shirts and posters on my wall. I remember we had a vinyl copy of Live After Death, and I thought the version of “The Number of the Beast” on that album was just killer.
I never saw Iron Maiden live, but I played the heck out of Seventh Son and also Somewhere in Time, which ended up being my favorite Iron Maiden album. I know a lot of people were like, “Oh, that’s the Iron Maiden synth album,” but to me, it’s just their best work.
Like The Who did just 15 years prior, Iron Maiden took the opportunity to demonstrate to those of us who had not seen the band play live, how much more massive than their already massive albums they really are, with their 1985 concert album, ‘Live After Death’.
While The Who pushed their relatively tame rock songs—“Substitute,” “Shakin’ All Over,” and “My Generation”—into molten metal territory with their live set from Leeds, Maiden completely transformed the boogie-driven “Running Free” into a frenzy of screaming guitar metal. Other songs that once seemed untouchable, like “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Run to the Hills,” are somehow jolted into an even higher stratosphere. And their live rendition of “Flight of Icarus” proves that a single Bruce Dickinson can pummel us harder than the three (or more) Bruces on the multi-tracked studio version.
Handling Iron Maiden in a vacuum is something of a fool’s errand. Good luck regardless.
What’s that cassette in the lower left? I thought in the 80’s they just had the seven albums plus Live After Death
1990 no prayer for the dying